PREAMBLE

We, the
Beninese people,

Reaffirm
our fundamental opposition to any political regime founded on arbitrariness,
dictatorship, injustice, corruption, misappropriation of public funds,
regionalism, nepotism, confiscation of power, and personal power;

Express our firm will to
defend and safeguard our dignity in the eyes of the world and to find again the
place and role as pioneer of democracy and of the defence of human rights which
were formerly ours;

Solemnly affirm our
determination by this present Constitution to create a state of law and
pluralistic democracy in which the fundamental human rights, public liberties,
the dignity of the human being, and justice shall be guaranteed, protected and
promoted as the condition necessary for the genuine harmonious development of
each Beninese in his temporal and cultural dimension as well as in his
spiritual;

Reaffirm
our attachment to the principles of democracy and human rights as they have
been defined by the Charter of the United Nations of 1945 and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, by the African Charter on Human and
Peoples' Rights adopted in 1981 by the Organization of African Unity and ratified
by Benin on 20 January 1986 and whose provisions make up an integral part of
this present Constitution and of Beninese law and have a value superior to the
internal law;

Affirm our will to
co-operate in peace and friendship with all peoples who share our ideals of
liberty, of justice, of human solidarity based on the principles of equality,
of reciprocal interest and of mutual respect for national sovereignty and for
territorial integrity;

Proclaim our attachment
to the cause of African unity and pledge ourselves to leave no stone unturned
in order to realise local and regional integration;

Solemnly adopt the
present Constitution which shall be the Supreme Law of the state and to which
we swear loyalty, fidelity and respect.

TITLE I: THE
STATE AND SOVEREIGNTY

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Article
2

The Republic of Benin
shall be one - indivisible, secular, and democratic. Its principle shall be:
“Government of the people, by the people, and for the people”.

Article
3

National sovereignty
shall belong to the people. No portion of the people, no community, no
corporation, no party or political association, no trade union organisation nor
any individual shall be able to abrogate the exercise of it. Sovereignty shall
be exercised in accordance with the present Constitution which is the Supreme
Law of the state. Any law, any statutory text and any administrative act
contrary to these provisions shall be null and void. Consequently, any citizen
shall have the right to appeal to the Constitutional Court against the laws,
texts, and acts presumed unconstitutional.

Article
4

The people shall
exercise their sovereignty through their elected representatives by means of
the referendum.

...

Article
5

Political parties shall
co-operate in the expression of suffrage. They shall be formed and shall freely
exercise their activities under conditions determined by the Charter of
Political Parties. They must respect the principles of national sovereignty, of
democracy, of territorial integrity and of the secularity of the state.

Article
6

Suffrage shall be
universal, equal and secret. The electors shall be, under the conditions
determined by law, all Beninese nationals of both sexes over the age of
eighteen and in full possession of their civil and political rights.

TITLE II:
RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE INDIVIDUAL

Article
7

The rights and duties
proclaimed and guaranteed by the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights
adopted in 1981 by the Organization of African Unity and ratified by Benin on
January 20, 1986 shall be an integral part of the present Constitution and of
Beninese law.

Article
8

The human person is
sacred and inviolable. The state has the absolute obligation to respect it and
protect it. It shall guarantee him a full blossoming out. To that end, it shall
assure to its citizens equal access to health, education, culture, information,
vocational training, and employment.

Article
9

Every human being has a
right to the development and full expansion of his person in his material,
temporal and intellectual dimensions, provided that he does not violate the
rights of others nor infringe upon constitutional order and good manners.

Article
10

Every person has a right
to culture. The state has the duty to safeguard and promote the national values
of civilisations, as much material as spiritual, as well as the cultural
traditions.

Article
11

All communities
comprising the Beninese nation shall enjoy the freedom to use their spoken and
written languages and to develop their own culture while respecting those of
others. The state must promote the development of national languages of
intercommunication.

Article
12

The state and public
authorities shall guarantee the education of children and shall create
conditions favourable to this end.

Article
13

The state shall provide
for the education of the youth by public schools. Primary education shall be
obligatory. The state shall assure progressively free public education.

Article
14

Religious institutions
and communities shall be able to co-operate equally in the education of the
youth. Private schools, secular or parochial, may be opened with the
authorisation and control of the state. The private schools may benefit from
state subsidies under conditions determined by law.

Article
15

Each individual has the
right to life, liberty, security and the integrity of his person.

Article
16

No one shall be arrested
or accused except by virtue of a law promulgated prior to the charges against
him. No citizen shall be forced into exile.

Article
17

Any person accused of an
unlawful act shall be presumed innocent until his culpability has been legally
established in the course of a public lawsuit during which all guarantees
necessary to his free defence shall have been assured to him. No one shall be
condemned for actions or omissions which, at the moment when they were
committed, did not constitute an infraction according to the national law.
Likewise, he may not have a more severe penalty inflicted than that which was
applicable at the time when the offence was committed.

Article
18

No one shall be
submitted to torture, nor to maltreatment, nor to cruel, inhumane or degrading
treatment. No one shall have the right to prevent a detainee or an accused
person from being examined by a doctor of his choice. No one may be detained in
a penal institution if he does not fall under the provisions of a penal law in
force. No one may be detained for a duration greater than forty-eight hours
except by a decision of the magistrate before whom he must have been presented.
This delay may be prolonged only in circumstances exceptionally provided for by
law and may not exceed a period greater than eight days.

Article
19

Any individual or any
agent of the state who shall be found responsible for an act of torture or of
maltreatment or of cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment in the exercise of,
or at the time of the exercise of his duties, whether of his own initiative or
whether under instruction, shall be punished in accordance with the law. Any
individual or any agent of the state shall be absolved of the duty of obedience
when the order received shall constitute a serious and manifest infringement
with respect to human rights and public liberties.

Article
20

The domicile shall be
inviolable. House visits or searches may be carried out only according to the
forms and conditions provided by law.

Article
21

The secrecy of
correspondence and of communications shall be guaranteed by law.

Article
22

Every person has the
right to his property. No one shall be deprived of his property except for
state-approved usefulness and in exchange for a just and prerequisite
compensation.

Article
23

Every person has the
right to freedom of thought, of conscience, of religion, of creed, of opinion
and of expression with respect for the public order established by law and
regulations. The exercise of a creed and the expression of beliefs shall take
place with respect for the secularity of the state. The institutions and the
religious or philosophical communities shall have the right to develop without
hindrances. They shall not be subject to the guardianship of the state. They
shall regulate and administer their affairs in an autonomous manner.

Article
24

Freedom of the press
shall be recognised and guaranteed by the state. It shall be protected by the
High Authority of Audio-Visuals and Communications under the conditions fixed
by an organic law.

Article
25

The state shall
recognise and guarantee, under conditions fixed by law, the freedom to go and
come, the freedom of association, of assembly, of procession and of
demonstration.

Article
26

The state shall assure
to everyone equality before the law without distinction of origin, race, sex,
religion, political opinion or social position. Men and women are equal under
the law. The state shall protect the family and particularly the mother and child.
It shall take care of handicapped and aged persons.

Article
27

Every person has the
right to a healthy, satisfying and lasting environment and has the duty to
defend it. The state shall watch over the protection of the environment.

Article
28

The storage, handling,
and removal of toxic wastes or pollutants originating from factories and other
industrial or cottage industry units installed in the national territory shall
be regulated by law.

Article
29

The transportation,
importation, storage, burying and the discharging on the national territory of
toxic wastes or foreign pollutants and any agreement relating to it shall
constitute a crime against the nation. The applicable sanctions shall be
defined by law.

Article
30

The state shall
recognise for all citizens the right to work and shall strive to create
conditions which shall make the enjoyment of this right effective and shall
guarantee to the worker just compensation for his services or for his
production.

Article
31

The state shall
recognise and guarantee the right to strike. Each worker may defend, under the
conditions provided by law, his rights and interests whether individually,
whether collectively, or by trade union action. The right to strike shall be
exercised under conditions defined by law.

Article
32

The defence of the
nation and of the integrity of the territory of the Republic is a sacred duty
for every Beninese citizen. Military service shall be obligatory. The
conditions for the accomplishment of this duty shall be determined by law.

Article
33

All citizens of the
Republic of Benin have the duty to work for the common good, to fulfil all of
their civic and professional obligations, and to pay their fiscal
contributions.

Article
34

Each Beninese citizen,
civilian or military, has the sacred duty to respect, in all circumstances, the
Constitution and the established constitutional order as well as the laws and
regulations of the Republic.

Article
35

Citizens responsible for
a public office or elected to a political office have the duty to fulfil it
with conscience, competence, probity, devotion, and loyalty in the interest of
the common good.

Article
36

Each Beninese has the
duty to respect and to consider his own kin without any discrimination; and to
keep relations with others that shall permit the safeguarding, the
reinforcement and promotion of respect, dialogue and reciprocal tolerance with
a view to peace and to national cohesion.

Article
37

Public property shall be
sacred and inviolable. Each Beninese citizen must respect it scrupulously and
protect it. Any act of sabotage, vandalism, corruption, diversion, dilapidation
or illegal enrichment shall be suppressed under conditions provided by law.

Article
38

The state shall protect
the rights and legitimate interests of Beninese citizens in a foreign country.

Article
39

Foreigners in the
territory of the Republic of Benin shall have the benefit of the same rights
and liberties as the Beninese citizens, and this under the conditions
determined by law. They must conform to the Constitution and to the laws and
regulations of the Republic.

Article
40

The state has the duty
to assure the diffusion and the teaching of the Constitution, of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, of the African Charter on Human and
Peoples' Rights of 1981 as well as all of the international instruments duly
ratified and relative to human rights. The state must integrate the rights of
the individual into the programs of literacy and of teaching in the various
scholastic and university academic cycles and into all the educational programs
of the Armed Forces, of the Public Security Forces and of comparable
categories. The state must equally assure the diffusion and teaching of these
same rights in the national languages by all the means of mass communication,
and particularly by radio and television.

TITLE III: EXECUTIVE POWER

...

Article
58

The President of the
Republic, after consultation with the President of the National Assembly and
the President of the Constitutional Court, shall be able to take the initiative
of the referendum on any question relative to the promotion of and the
reinforcement of human rights …

…

Article
66

In case of a coup
d’état,
or a putsch, of aggression by mercenaries or of any action by force
whatsoever, any member of a constitutional agency shall have the right and the
duty to make an appeal by any means in order to re-establish the constitutional
legitimacy, including recourse to existing agreements of military or defence
co-operation. In these circumstances for any Beninese to disobey and organise
himself to put a check to the illegitimate authority shall constitute the most
sacred of rights and the most imperative of duties.

...

TITLE V: THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

Article
114

The Constitutional Court
shall be the highest jurisdiction of the state in constitutional matters. It
shall be the judge of the constitutionality of the law and it shall guarantee
the fundamental human rights and the public liberties. It shall be the
regulatory body for the functioning of institutions and for the activity of
public authorities.

...

Article
117

The Constitutional Court
shall rule obligatorily on:

...

· The
constitutionality of laws and regulatory acts deemed to infringe on fundamental
human rights and on public liberties, and in general on the violation of the
rights of the individual;

...

Article
120

The Constitutional Court
must rule within a period of fifteen days after it has been informed of a text
of a bill or of a complaint of the violation of human rights and of public liberties.
However, at the demand of the government, if there is an emergency, this period
shall be reduced to eight days. In this case, the submission of the matter to
the Constitutional Court shall suspend the deadline for the promulgation of the
law.

Article
121

The Constitutional
Court, at the request of the President of the Republic or of any member of the
National Assembly, shall give its opinion on the constitutionality of laws in
advance of their promulgation. It shall give its opinion automatically on the
constitutionality of laws and any regulatory text deemed to infringe on the
fundamental human rights and on the public liberties. It shall decide more
generally on the violations of the rights of the individual and its decision
must be reached within a period of eight days.

Article
122

Any citizen may complain
to the Constitutional Court about the constitutionality of laws whether
directly or whether by the procedure of the exception of unconstitutionality
invoked in a matter which concerns him before a court of law. This must grant a
stay until the decision of the Constitutional Court which must be reached
within a period of thirty days.

Article
123

The organic laws in
advance of their promulgation; the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly,
of the High Authority of Audio-Visuals and of Communications, and of the
Economic and Social Council before their enforcement must be submitted to the
Constitutional Court which shall give its decision on their conformity to the
Constitution.

Article
124

A provision declared
unconstitutional may not be promulgated or enforced. The decision of the
Constitutional Court shall not be subject to any appeal. They shall be
imperative for public authorities and for all civil, military and
jurisdictional authorities.

TITLE VI: JUDICIAL POWER

Article
125

Judicial power shall be
independent of the legislative power and of the executive power.

...

TITLE IX: TREATIES AND INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS

Article
144

The President of the
Republic shall negotiate and ratify treaties and international agreements.

...

Article
146

If the Constitutional
Court, upon a submission by the President of the Republic or by the President
of the National Assembly, shall have decided that an international obligation
allows a clause contrary to the Constitution, the authorisation to ratify it
may occur only after the revision of the Constitution.

Article
147

Treaties or agreements
lawfully ratified shall have, upon their publication, an authority superior to
that of laws, without prejudice for each agreement or treaty in its application
by the other party.

...

TITLE XI: REVISION

Article
154

The initiative for the
revision of the Constitution shall belong concurrently to the President of the
Republic, after a decision taken in the Council of Ministers, and to the
members of the National Assembly. In order to be taken into consideration, the
draft or proposal of revision must be voted by a three-fourths majority of the
members composing the National Assembly.

Article
155

The revision shall be
agreed to only after having been approved by referendum, unless the draft or
the proposal involved shall have been approved by a four-fifths majority of the
members composing the Assembly.

Article
156

No procedure for
revision may be instituted or continued when it shall undermine the integrity
of the territory. The republican form of government and the secularity of the
state may not be made the object of a revision.